Eva Robin's (often spelt Robbins) was born Roberto Maurizio Coatti in Sienna, Italy in December 1958, and she has never legally changed her name.  She is probably - but not certainly - living her life as as bi-sexual pre-SRS transsexual woman.

Eva has always maintained that she's a hermaphrodite and not a transsexual, claiming that she takes no female hormones and that her body feminised rather than masculinised at puberty.  Physically she exhibits none of the characteristics typical of most intersex or pseudo-hermaphrodite medical conditions.  There are some rare conditions - most notably Partial AIS - that could still explain (for example) her breast development, but it's also quite possible that she's been taking at least small amounts of female hormones (e.g. from contraceptive pills) since her teens.  Eva's obvious but not substantial breast development (apparently un-enhanced by any surgery) is certainly appropriate for a teenage transitioner. 

Either way, after some psychological confusion as a youth, Eva finally chose to live with great success as a woman of considerable beauty.  Indeed, in a recent poll by a radio station which asked one thousand Italian men who would they would most like to marry, Eva came an impressive third with 17% of the vote - beaten only by Helena Christensen and Daniela Vergara!

It would be difficult to doubt that Eva was a woman in every sense but for her deliberate revealing of her anatomy in some movies.  There are recurrent rumours that she quietly had sex re-assignment surgery in 1998 (or 1991), but these have never been confirmed although they regularly re-surface as fact - slightly supported by the fact she hasn't fully displayed her lower sexual organs since the film Mascara in 1989. 

In a 2002 interview for the Italian Internet ISP libero.it  the interviewer presented Eva as Roberto Coatti, she stated that she has never had a sex reassignment operation, and that it would be a negative thing "for a person that has found herself".  She's since been explicit that she doesn't want to "cut my penis cut off" as it's been "so good to her", she has relationships with women but she also seeks relationships with men so that she doesn't "loose touch with my femininity"

Eva apparently asked to be credited as "Roberto" for her award winning movie L'auto del Silenzio which was filmed in 2001, but the producers preferred "Eva" given that she was playing the lead female role in a PG rated film.  The issue seems unlikely to be resolved without dramatic evidence.

Eva (left) on the set of L'auto del Silenzio.

Eva's an extremely accomplished actress and has a long list of movies to her credit, after some dubious early efforts such as Evaman (1980) she successfully broke in to the mainstream.  Although she laments that although she is rarely offered roles not dependent upon her "surprise" factor, many of her movies do in fact avoid this, for example when she appears as the topless "Woman on Beach" in Tenebre (1982) no hint is given that she's not a woman.  She followed this movie with a minor role in the rather dire films Hercules (1983) and The Adventures of Hercules (1985), ironically one of the many complaints made about these films by movie critics is that in Greek mythology Eva's character - Dedalos (a misspelling of "Daedalus") - is a man, not a woman.  Since then Eva has had staring roles in a series of mainly Italian language movies such as Mascara (1989), Belle al Bar (1994), Luna e l'altra (1987), I Miei Piu' Cari Amici (1998) and, as mentioned above, L'auto del Silenzio (2001).

In 2003 she stared as a fading lesbian singer in Cattive Inclinazioni -  although a rather dire film she looked great for her age of 44.

The cast of Il bello delle donne 2, Eva is kneeling, second from left.

She is also a TV celebrity and even had her own rather unsuccessful prime-time show Primadonna in the 1990's.  In the early 2000's she also stared as "Pola" in the second series of the hit Italian TV show Il Bello Delle Donne (The Beautiful Women).

Eva Robbins/Robin's - Filmography to 2005:

In Production:
Allamore Assente by Andrea Adriatico

Completed:
Segreto di Rahil. Il by Cinzia Bomoll

Distributed:
Cattive Inclinazioni by Pierfrancesco Campanella  (2003)
L'auto del Silenzio (2001)
Miei pił cari amici, I (1998)
Primo estratto, Il (1997)
Luna e l'altra (1996)
Belle al bar (1994)
Gioco al massacro (1989) [Massacre Play]
Mascara (1987)
Mondo dell'orrore di Dario Argento, Il (1985) [Dario Argento's World of Horror]
Avventure dell'incredibile Ercole, Le (1985) [Adventures of Hercules, The]
Hercules (1983)
Tenebre (1982) [Unsane]
Todos al suelo (1981)
Desnuda chica del relax, La (1981)
Chica llamada Marylyne, Una (1980)
Primeros metros, Los (1980)
Evaman, la mįquina del amor (1980) [Eva Man]
Nueva Marilyn, La (1976)